Bill? kind of involved question:

Kismet

Kismet

Joined
Jan 30, 2002
Messages
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Can you give a general list of what uses the khuks are put to in Nepal on a daily basis? I'm interested in some detail...once you mentioned cutting vegetables, I'm sure the ganga knives are used for weed control, and the BAS and its ilk are weapons. But are houses or wood planks made, trails cleared, shelters built, animals slaughtered other than in ritual sacrifice, oxen skinned...etc, etc?

And as I understand the stature of the average Nepali is somewhat less than that of the average American, what size khuks are brought into general use? I know that there must be a wide range....

I ask because at 5'8" and admittedly growing weaker, even the 15 in AK is a conspicuous weight to me, and I love it. But I wonder on the size, general utility, and ways to make the blade less conspicuous in its native country.

If this is too demanding an enquiry, I'll understand.


Thank you, friend.

Kis
:rolleyes:
 
Kis, any job a knife can do will be done by a khukuri in Nepal. There's just too many tasks to get into. I have a picture somewhere of a ferris wheel that was built with khukuris and I've seen guys get up a very decent bamboo home with thatch roof near lakeside in Pokhara in a couple of days using only khukuris. And everything in between. Most popular size is the "standard" villager 14 to 16 inches. You'll see loggers using something like the Ganga Ram and guys cutting corn using a slender 20 inch Sirupati or something that very much resembles our Kobra. A lot of kitchen work is done with smaller khukuris, 9 to 12 inch. If a knife can do it then you've got the picture.
 
If I may be so bold as to submit a thought that came to me while reading the first post of this thread.

From all I have read on the forum and on the HI site. It seems to me that the only thing that restricts a job the kkhuk can do is the imagination of the owner of the khuk and, did he buy the kind of khuk he should have for general use.

Slicing bacon with a 18" AK would be quite a chore I would think. That is why I guess that Uncle Bill says the most common size in general use are the 14" to 16". The rest kind of fit in to some kind of specialty use.
I hope this made some kind of sense.:D
 
Thank you Bill and Pappy...

My culture, and my life is so different than that of a Nepali's, I'm just curious as to how someone in that region might go through a day, utilizing a khuk for the various tasks that present him.


Anyone else have ideas, or practical experience?

Thanks.

Kis
:rolleyes:
 
<b>Anyone else have ideas, or practical experience? </b>
Click to expand...

As far as my experience goes, I try to use my 15' AK as much as possible. The practical daily use for this type of blade varies from slicing and choppig food in the kitchen (come and get it pumpkins! :)) to firelog chopping. It is also an excellent outdoors blade. For finer or detail work, I prefer a straight blade, such as the Fallkniven F1. I don't use the karda.

I agree with Pappy that the smaller or larger models are for more specific use.

Just my 0,02 eurocent,
-Emile
 
Somewhere (only God knows where) I have a picture of a butcher in Nepal cutting some meat. He's got a rig to do this that he made himself. He is not the only one -- it's a fairly common tool that butchers use although the blade used is not always a khukuri. It's basically a long board with a khukuri or some other blade (no handle) mounted on the board vertically. He pulls the meat through the blade to make the cut.
 
Uncle Bill,

Do we know anyone in Nepal that can put together a 60 minute video documenting some of the various uses the knives are employed for by the locals. It would be good to document some of this stuff while we still can. Within a few years most of these knives will probably be replaced by modern power tools.

Another 30 minutes at some of the shops documenting how the knives are currently made, wouldn't be bad either. :D

n2s
 
They have some good people who can do this and I'm going to hire one to do the video. I'm not a pro and to do the job right a pro is needed.

I found the pix but it's not a khukuri as I remembered but a special made backward khukuri. The guy is using it to clean some fish.
 

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Bill,

Perhaps you can get the raw footage and notes in Nepal and have it professionally edited and produced stateside.

n2s
 
That fish-cleaning rig is pretty interesting.
Both hands on the slippery fish.

Attached to the board by a right-angle tang?

Sorta resembles some special mounted tools used to remove coconut flesh from the shell.
 
That fish-cleaning rig is pretty interesting.
Click to expand...

It is also interesting that he is sitting on the board, vrs. having it permanently installed somewhere. He is either working in a multiuse space, or as a contractor.

n2s
 
Hey Uncle

I'm working for a proffesional movie studio now. We could shoot and edit that stuff.

Foxy
 
It's multi use space.

Foxy, if I could pay the freight to get you over and back I'd take you. I'll hire some local guys out of Kathmandu.
 
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